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Disaster Mental Health

This page contains most all disaster-related links and materials available at this site. Here, you'll find mental health handouts as well as links to external disaster web sites, disaster mental health guides, and other informative materials useful in assisting disaster victims. The focus of this page is less on the most recent specific disaster, and more on generally useful information and links that may be useful in a variety of disasters.

Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 Fragments Impact Jupiter

Some disaster victims do need additional attention from a professional therapist, but most will not. Much of the initial mental health disaster response involves two primary goals:

(1) normalizing feelings: reassuring victims that the strange and upsetting feelings they experience after a disaster (as following other traumatizing experiences) are normal -- given what happened -- and (2) helping victms find effective ways of coping with any ongoing stress.

I hope the following handouts will assist in this educational process. At least, on Earth...

The first fourteen information sheets below were collected during my previous experience in disaster mental health assistance, and from generous colleagues. Many of these handouts came to me during the Northridge California earthquake in early 1994. For this listing, I selected handouts that seem broadly useful and generic across disaster type.

As far as I know, none of the 14 internal documents in this section are under copyright. They may be used in the service of mental health disaster assistance provided authorship credit is given (where known), and no fee is charged to any recipients. For that purpose, please feel free to download any sheets that appear useful. You should be able to save or capture individual files to disk, but just how you do this depends some on your browser. Or, you can download the entire set in zipped text format. Following these internal documents, you will find additional disaster materials residing external to this site. Please follow the copyright and usage guidelines as posted on these files by their authors.

Photo: Thomas FranklinBergen Record

A separate section lists links to web sites focused on disasters and disaster responses, including current disasters. These sites are copyright by their authors, of course. Please also have a look at the general support information and web links on separate pages. For example, many links on the Supportive Information page, as well as several sites on the Resources page or other sections, have information particularly relevant for trauma victims and disaster workers.

Feel free to email your comments or suggestions. I would particularly appreciate hearing from anyone with additional materials to contribute to this collection, or from anyone knowing of any documents that should be removed from this site. Enjoy!

Disaster Mental Health Handouts

The following cache of 14 disaster handouts residing at this site is categorized into material for Adult Victims, Families & Child Victims, and Disaster Workers & their Families.

Two separate sections of external disaster materials follows these 14 handouts: The first, added following the September 2001 terrorist attacks on World Trade Center and the Pentagon, focuses primarily on terrorist attacks. The second section of external disaster materials focuses more generally on disasters. All may be useful, since all address emotional and mental health issues commonly faced by disaster victims.

Kathleen Nader's article, written after the 11 September attacks, addresses psychological first aid, recognizing vulnerability, etc.

Disaster Mental Health Guides

This section of links focuses on disaster mental health (DMH) guides that may be useful for emergency workers working with individuals in disaster situations. DMH guides focus on mental health issues pertinent in disaster situations, but may also be useful in working with any individual in crisis.

A separate section of links collects PTSD treatment guidelines (for PTSD, acute stress, and dissociative disorders). While the PTSD treatment guides may be of primary interest to clinicians working with traumatic stress disorders, they can be helpful for some individuals in disaster areas as well. Therefore, the PTSD treatment guides page is the first link in this section.

Dr Parson's article on helping affected people recover from acute distress to healing and integration following a disaster.

Disaster Links

This section contains many links to disaster-related sites. Links concerning general disaster response are organized by scope or focus. Other links providing information about finding current or recent disasters follow them. [Please check the Site Map to locate additional links available at this site.]

General Disaster Sites

Many organizations offer relief information and assistance to victims of trauma in disasters. Here are some links to the information available, separated into subsections by their predominant focus or scope (e.g., global, US, and foreign).

PASE offers products, training and consulting for post-disaster business continuity.

Current Disasters: Natural or Man-Made

A collection of links to updated information about current disaster(s), followed by sites concentrating on specific recent disasters. These links are updated periodically. Links in this section focus on breaking news and current disasters:

Current information from Los Angeles Public Health
Department, on bioterrorism and related issues.

Man-Made Disasters: Mass Shootings (e.g., shootings at schools, etc.)

Note that much general information on children, trauma, grief, etc. is available throughout this site, especially on the Trauma & Support Pages, this page, & the Trauma Links page. A section of more general links on School Violence (and its prevention) have been added to Trauma Links page.